Saturday, March 24, 2007

reprise and random ramblings

These days it is a nightfilmfestival in Copenhagen, and last night I planned on having a Norwave (as it is described in the filmfestival programme) -marathon, watching Sønner, Free Jimmy and Reprise. It turned out I ended up watching only Reprise, which was also the one I was most keen on seeing.

The last year I have started to become quite interested in things norwegian, I guess one needs to get away from it to see the beauty of it. Walking around the mountains of Iceland made me long for and develop an interest for norwegian nature. (the northmost point I have been to in norway beeing bergen-->flom) I know I have something undiscovered right there. I have also started to watch Nytt på Nytt, Først og sist med Fredrik Skavlan, Typisk Norsk and Eva og Adam online, to get in touch with the mothercountry and figuring out what is going on there, but mostly because they are GREAT tv-shows. I also try to read books in norwegian, rather than in english. I am seeing more and more wonderful things that is actually going on in norway. One of which, is the movies that have been popping out of norway the last few years (norwave). norwegian is suddenly, to my ears, becoming a beautiful language suited to be captured on the silkscreen. in my early years i refused to watch norwegian tv-series and movies because norwegian sounded totally wrong. now I have come to realize that it is the acting and the dialogue that has changed, or my perception of it, into the better, not the language. it was suited all along. I have always preferred watching swedish or danish or even icelandic movies to the norwegian ones, just because I always though norwegian was a bad language to act on. but norwegian is actually the perfect language to act on or with! with all of our different dialects, that all have certain characteristics that we (norwegians) have certain assosiations to.

the patriot in me has awoken.

I took my moviebuddy baixiang with me to the cinema called Gloria, by rådhuspladsen. we enjoyed a couple of glasses of wine before the movie. I was excited to be able to show baixiang something in norwegian, seeing how our language of communication is english. (our danish-norwegian talks dont get us as far as those in english) the movie started out with an imagery of norwegian 17.may celibration, which made my norwegianbeatingheart skip a beat. people were walking around in bunads and russ were rolling around being drunk. proudly I turn to baixiang and whisper; "last time I was in norway during our national day; I was one of those; russ!"

onwards with the movie,I was totally blown away.maybe I say this a lot.but I was. the acting. the music.the plot.the references.one that stuck, the mentioning of the movie "Mondo Topless" by Russ Meyer, made be giggle. I watched this one while working in the videostore in iceland. I put it on, didnt know what to expect really, except of course what you can guess from the title. to my discovery this is a movie where topless girls are dancing, while their thoughts are voice-overed. and it goes on like this for I cant remember how long. but I was forced to shut it off seeing how children could come in to the videostore.

and back to the movie again:this is such a beautiful, touching, mindblowingly fantastic movie. I dare say it is the best norwegian movie I ever saw (with a little bit of guilt towards Salmer fra kjøkkenet). I will let reprise and salmer fra kjøkkenet (directed by a man from my tiny hometown even!) share the first place in the norwegian department of my movieheart.

reprise has a lot of grace, a lot of warmth, and it is told in such a wonderful, wonderful way. very impressive is how most of the actors are new to the game, and the fact that this was the first long movie made by director Joachim Trier. read a wonderful interview with him and his co-writer Eskil Vogt here (in english):

wow. but the acting! oh, the acting!

I think this movie made be realize that I too want to act. yes, it might sound silly. I might suck at it. I have no idea how or where to start or how to go about at all.but it is right now the thought that makes me smile. and my stumach to be filled with very eager butterflies.

and oh, another thing worth mentioning.I always fall for the leading character when I watch a movie.it is something I have done since I was a little girl. it is something all girls do when they watch titanic at age 13 and they fall in love with leonardo dicaprio.but my infatuations with the main character who is acted by a man,is,maybe,because of, just the ability to act.the abiltity to act is the one sole thing that captures my attention more than anything else. and I am so intrigued by it, how these poeple become some one else for a short while, they convince me that they are someone else.maybe this ability is what makes me so interested.mostly because I want to, so badly myself.

in this movie, both the two main boy characters were wonderfully charming, but my infatuation fell heavely on the one called erik in the movie and Espen Klouman Høiner,in real life.it might be funny how i write this in a blog I share with a boyfriend.but I am sure he does the same thing.fall in love for a short while with the female character of the movies.dont we all?they are supposed to seduce us, capture our hearts.and mostly,they succeed in capturing mine.I am easy to capture. I know.

this was a great watch! watch it!if you are a very close friend of mine,(I am guessing those are the only ones that actually read this blog)then you can expect a copy for your next birthday. my sister and my ex being the first ones coming up.

heres a short summary in english that I found on their website www.reprisefilm.noREPRISE is a playful film about friendship, madness and creativity, about love andsorrow, great ambitions and the often unpleasant clash between youthful presumptions and reality. With its somewhat un-Norwegian structure, REPRISE has a distinct style and narrative technique which moves the story forward in a richand enthusiastic manner.

5 comments:

The movie was absolutely amazing, in terms of editing techniques and other effects. It was very funny as well.. especially the part where the guy said he was going to stay in and read his Heidegger book.. and it turns out he was going to watch porn!

Ha ha.

(oh, and i forgot to mention.. this is an old email account.. so ignore the name :P)

I'm not a friend or relative - but a Norwegian! I discovered your blog from searching Google for reviews of Reprise. The film is a favorite of mine from last year, and I've been writing exstensively about it, both here and here. It was just released on DVD back here in Norway - just a wonderful film! Thanks for your emotional and honest review. A very nice read.